Tactician

I will mostly take Tactician, your goal is to harass and protect your carry, doing both of these with Tactician can generate vim comparable to Gladiators, If played well.

Predator

Kel can be played Predator if your lane allows it, so long as you start Battle Cry! over Sheep Toss and take a Wither or Stagger your lane should be able to get first blood and start snowballing.

Load out – Force Bubble Load out

Load outs are users choice really, whichever helps your play-style overall, I will usually take Force Bubble as my load out choice, I like the extra bit of shield you get it allows me to harass without too much worry about taking some damage.

I’ve tried with many other load outs, and they all can work in their own way, find the one that suits your play-style.

Spells

Level 1 – Wither Level 10 – Tailwind Level 20 – Deflect

I will usually use these spells, Depending on what the enemy team make-up is.

Stagger

Ill take Stagger if I’m against a Magical Carry, I feel the Slow is more useful against them as they usually have dashes and the move speed reduction can help you catch up.

Wither

Ill take Wither if I’m against a Physical Carry (Also versus Kindra) because the attack speed slow is amazing versus auto attackers, as they generally don’t have a lot of movement based abilities.

Tailwind

Tailwind is usually my second spell all the time, you can pop it and toss your sheep and start a fight, and your team can follow up instantly, its also a great tool for escaping for cutting people off in the the jungle/opposite lane as well as getting to Para for that epic last second steal.

Deflect

Ill take Deflect as my first or Third spell most often, depending on how much harass my lane partner is taking, or if I know I can secure a kill (I take whither or Swagger at this point)

Blitz

Blitz is a spell I’m still playing around with, with the recent addition of King of Masks, I feel that it might be very useful for starting fights. I’m still looking into this. Its useful in a lane with heavy CC (Desecrator, Renzo, Petrus, King of Masks)

At level 1 you can take whichever skill you prefer, just skill the other two accordingly, I usually prefer to take [Q] first for mobility and getting into lane/warding both faster and safer.

Q : Sheep Toss -

I max Sheep Toss first to lower the cooldown allowing you to be much more mobile in lane, it is also Kel’s strongest skill in terms of base damage as long as you hit with both the Toss as well as the follow-up, at level 1 this is 50(0.3)+50(0.3)=100(0.6) damage at level 1, compared to his Battle Cry! at 60(0.6) or his Crook Sweep at 60(0.4).

You can Sheep Toss over most of the walls on the map, allowing you to effectively roam or cut of an escape easily, It also allows you to rotate to the opposite lane with ease for a quick gank.

You can tower dive very easily with Sheep Toss as well, walk into the fight, don’t Sheep Toss into the fight, Ult>W>E, your carry should have been able to get the kill in this time, then Sheep Toss to get out of tower range, I see many people Sheep Toss into the tower, but then have no means of escape one they have tower aggro.

W : Battle Cry! -

Kel’s Battle Cry! can be taken at level 1 if you plan on invading for the AoE 50% slow you get, adding another 5% on the slow every level, you can level Battle Cry! over Sheep Toss to increase the slow amount if you wish, I personally like the mobility Kel has and I like to play on that strength.

The cone on Battle Cry! is very wide, allowing you to use it to harass enemy shapers as well as help push the minion wave. The slow on it is very helpful in setting up ganks if they are being aggressive.

E : Crook Sweep -

I wouldn’t get Crook Sweep at level 1 simply because the slow or mobility from Battle Cry! or Sheep Toss are a lot stronger in my eyes, with Crook Sweep the enemy team would have to be sitting right beside you to get the knock-up and if they are on top of you already at level 1 its pretty much first blood for them.

The Knock-up on Crook Sweep is wonderful, it can stop channeled Ults and locks shaper actions for 0.5 seconds to help you land a Battle Cry! and help your team set up for the kill. In team fights you can lock up the entire enemy team with a Ult>E>W> combo.

R : Titanic Charge -

Kel’s Ultimate can be devastating if used correctly, target someone in the back line, and go Ham, you knock up the entire enemy team and stun the target for 1.5 seconds, a Ult>E>W combo can wreck the enemy team and allows your team to set up, if you need to get out or your carry needs help you still have Sheep Toss to do so, just aim it through the enemy team you are now behind for more damage.

Starting Items :

Life Healing Potion x2

First Back :

Resilience Life->Fortitude Flask of Foresight

Early-Mid Game :

Flask of Foresight Resilience->Pride

Fortitude->Stamina -Or- Fortitude->Protection -Or- Fortitude->Unity

Flask of Foresight -

Flask of foresight basically turns you into a walking ward, using this can help you sniff out their jungler, or spot out a potential tower dive before it happens.

If there has been no pressure from the enemy jungler all game, or your wards are spotting out all potential ganks you might not need to buy a flask until the 15-20 minute mark at the latest, but I recommend getting one after this to help spot out the enemy team.

From here on out you will build depending on the enemy team composition, you will take one of the above Aura Items depending as well.

Glory -

Glory is in my opinion broken on tanks, since you will already have high HP from your other items the passive damage to everything around you ends up hurting quite a bit. When building this, upgrade your Resilience into a Pride and sit on that for a few more items, upgrading into a Glory only gives +100 HP, +8 Armor and like 13-15 damage on the passive, start building towards a valor first and buy a Resolve, the +32 Power adds to your abilities more and the shield gives more effective HP.

These two items I usually have in all my builds, I feel they are both great late game items, and will usually build them as my 4th, 5th or 6th item depending on how the game has progressed.

Subjugation -

I have recently started using Subjugation in all my builds, gives armor, MR, Haste and reduces all damage done by 15% to anyone you deal damage to, this with glory and you standing in the middle of the team fight, will reduce everyone on the enemy teams damage by 15%.

Rampancy - I like rampancy as my 6th item in all my builds for the Health and the 1.5% of my Max HP as bonus Power, it helps make you tanky as well as deal a lot of damage.

General Examples of Builds :

Heavy Magic Damage Team (2 Magic Carries)

Note: I have quite a bit of armor in this build even though its versus Mages because there will still be physical damage shapers on the enemy team. Unity – Aura Item you build your Fortitude into, It Reduces AOE Damage for you and all allies by 15%, and has a lot of MR on it, your team will love you for it.

Valor - I like to pick up Valor because we need some power somewhere, and this provides MR and power, as well as a 350 Shield when you drop below 30% HP making you more survivable, as well as giving you a power boost while you are low HP, giving up to 95 total (50 Max from low hp + 45 on the item itself).

Faith - Faith is an amazing Item versus Mages, giving you HP, MR, Movement Speed as well as a shield that can absorb up to 375 magic damage, this plus the 350 you get for dropping below 30% hp with Valor, as well as your other items giving HP, can net you up to 5000+ effective hp.

Heavy Physical Damage Team (2 Physical Carries)

Stamina -

Stamina is your Aura item in this build, it gives a nice bit of armor, plus it increases your teams armor by 8%, which (when against Physical shapers) helps a lot.

Adamance -

Adamance will give you your power in this build, it gives you a 350 shield when you drop below 30% HP making you a bit more survivable in a fight, but also has the Lockdown passive, which builds a stack of Lockdown upon taking physical damage, at 5 Stacks it will reduce any nearby shapers move speed by 30% and attack speed by 40% for 3 seconds, many Physical shapers rely on their auto attacks for their damage, reducing that speed will reduce their damage output tremendously.

Stability or Equilibrium -

If the enemy team has a lot of CC and its stopping you from engaging properly, take the stability, it reduces the duration of disabling effects by 40% and the move speed reduction of slows by 35%, you’ll be able to engage a bit easier now.

If they don’t have much CC or you can get into the fight without issue, take the Equilibrium, gives haste and a lot of armor, but also reduces the attack speed of anyone you damage by 30%, add the lockdown passive proc from Adamance and you reduce attack speed by 70%!

Balanced Team (1 Magic, 1 Physical Carry)

A balanced team is a bit more difficult to build around, you have to build as the game progresses, find out who is getting fed/kills, and build in that direction (example: Kindra is fed, you might want more MR, or if Varion is fed you might want to grab a Equilibrium or swap Valor for Adamance) but this build is fairly balanced to have equal Physical and Magical reduction.

Stamina Or Unity -

Talk to the other support in the game, ask them to grab which ever one would help them in lane more, and you grab the other, this will give the team both auras which will lessen a lot of the damage the enemy team will have.

Valor -

I like grabbing Valor in a balanced team for the power bonus you get over Adamnace.

Hope -

Hope is great against a balanced team because it gives you a nice chunk of both MR and Armor, but also grants you a 30% damage reduction for 3 seconds after using an ability.